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Day 8: Yellowstone and Grand Teton

Drove through Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks, still awestruck by the beauty of these parks. I last visited these parks 25 years ago, a family trip with my wife and kids plus my brother, his wife and kids. It is still as spectacular, though seems more crowded and commercial now.  There is also an awful lot of road construction going on.




Since I only drove through the southern part of Yellowstone, did not see any signs of damage from the devastating floods that have closed the northern entrances. I did see many signs of recent forest fires and the recovery in progress.  

 

 

 

Visited several geyser basins in Yellowstone on the way to Old Faithful. Got my fill of hot springs, mud pots, fumaroles, geysers.

 






 


Next up was a short hike to Mystic Falls. The temperature was around 80 F, and it felt quite hot in the bright sun. I was glad the hike was not too long. The hike through the trees, along the creek was quite scenic. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 The grand finale in Yellowstone was visiting Old Faithful geyser. It is an amazing sight seeing the big geyser go off like clockwork. I had to wait over an hour for my chance to see the next spectacle of steam and boiling water.  That cut down on the time I had available in Grand Teton, but it is what it is. 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On the way to Grand Teton National park, I stopped at a very interesting vista point that had a unique looking wooden logs building. It is the Chapel of the Sacred Heart,  a popular place for weddings.

 

 

 

 



 The Grand Tetons were hazy in the late afternoon and there was no snow on top, so it did not look as majestic as I remembered it from 25 years ago. I still had a good time with a short hike along Jenny Lake and taking lots of sunset pictures.

 

 

 

 


 



 

In addition to visiting both Yellowstone and Grand Teton today, I had a fair bit of driving and I was glad to reach my motel in Pinedale, Wyoming and get to sleep.

The raw numbers for the day:

  • 260 miles driving, 12500 steps walking
  • 2 Tesla supercharger stops, 1 NEMA 14-50 overnight charging session at motel
  • 2 states - Idaho, Wyoming

Next:  Day 9: Long Drive in High Desert (Sept 12, 2022)

Comments

  1. AJSeptember 15, 2022 at 9:46 PM

    Remember doing this with you... First day they opened up after winter!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. VisheshSeptember 17, 2022 at 5:07 PM

      :) I have a deep fondness for Yellowstone that seems disproportionate to my vague memories of the park. I must have taken a piece of it during that trip and nestled it in some crevice of my heart.

      Delete
  2. ManeeshaSeptember 16, 2022 at 6:21 PM

    Wow! Views are tree-mendous!

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousSeptember 22, 2022 at 5:04 AM

    Great pix.. :) how comfortable is sitting in a Tesla (bucket) seat for a person of your height, for hours on end?
    (Tesla seat padding is lacking, would you say?) - bay area resident, from india

    ReplyDelete

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